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Peg + Cat

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Peg + Cat (pronounced Peg Plus Cat) features a young girl named Peg along with her feline companion named Cat. Together, they explore numerous colorful settings and introduce children to basic math concepts with music, with two shorts per half-hour episode. The show made its PBS Kids debut on October 7, 2013.

"The Highlight Zone Problem" is a spoof of The Twilight Zone: with the titular zone being Deliberately Monochrome, Ramone serving as the Rod Serling-esque narrator, and an Or Was It a Dream? ending. It also teaches an aesop about being happy with things being the way they are (Peg winds up in the zone after, out of boredom, wishing that things in her usual environments were different).

Ancient Egypt: An occasional locale: Peg and Cat are friends with Queen Cleopatra.

Are You Pondering What I'm Pondering?: In "The Tree Problem," when Cat is stuck in a tree (see Cat Up a Tree below), Peg opens up a present that she received, hoping for something that might save Cat, and finds a giant coloring book and a kaleidoscope. Deciding that she can stack them up to reach Cat, she asks Cat if he's thinking what she's thinking and Cat quickly replies "No."

Argument of Contradictions: Ludwig von Beethoven and the Three Bears have one of these in "The Play Date Problem" and then follow it up with another about the best way to argue.

Food: "The Ninja Problem" has Cat tell Peg that "sushi is cut-up fish". Technically, sushi refers to the rice used in making such dishes, or the dish itself, but not to solely (no pun intended) the fish. Justified in that it's a relatively common misconception among non-native Japanese speakers, and enforced in that the writers were probably going for simplicity rather than all-out accuracy in a math edutainment show aimed at 4-7 year olds.

History: Beethoven doesn't seem to have any trouble with his hearing in this series.

Ballet Episode: "The Dance Problem", which centers around guest star Misty Copeland dancing in Swan Lake. Peg and Cat end up replacing two of the dancers when injury ensues during a key moment, though Cat does show concern that his tail will make him stand out too much at first.

Beach Episode: Most of "The Roxanne Problem" takes place at the beach, although no one is swimming or wearing a bathing suit.

The Bermuda Triangle: This is the subject of "The Bermuda Triangle Problem" in which the Pig, who is obsessed with triangles, goes into it and finds it to be a world full of triangles. Peg and Cat have to convince him to come out before the portal in which they're all trapped closes and he gets stuck there forever.

Be Yourself: Peg encourages Cat to be true to himself in "The Roxanne Problem", sometimes even saying the name of the trope word-for-word.

Big Ball of Violence: The teaser for "The Pirate Problem" has the pirates engaged in one of these, leading Peg and Cat to wonder just what it is they're seeing. Maybe a tornado, a tumbleweed, or a giant hairball? It's seen in the story proper also.

Big Eater: Cat is shown to have rather a big appetite, as are the Teens.

Big, Friendly Dog: This is the resolution of "The Big Dog Problem". The big dog standing in front of the mailbox — that Peg and Cat keep running away from — is just one of these and even helps them to reach the mailbox so that they can mail their really important letters, once they make friends with it.

Bigger on the Inside: The chicken coop can fit all 100 chickens in it despite appearing like a regular one, as shown at the end of "The Bus Problem."

Bittersweet Ending: At the end of "The Giant Problem", the misunderstanding is cleared up, but the beanstalk has been cut down and so they can't dine with the giants.

Sometimes, Pig will try to say that he loves triangles but another person will inform him that they know already before he can finish.

Peg tries to say her line about having a big problem in "The Butter Problem", but the farmer says, "You've got no problem at all!".

Cat Up a Tree: In "The Tree Problem" and "Another Tree Problem," the main problem in both is that Cat gets stuck in a tree. Inverted in "Yet Another Tree Problem," where Peg gets stuck up a tree. Taken to absurd levels and also inverted in "The Tree Problem of National Importance" when the Vice-President gets stuck up a national monument.

Cats Have Nine Lives: Alluded to in the superhero episodes. Cat Guy's superpower is the ability to do nine clumsy things without scraping his knees. This count resets every episode.

Chewing the Scenery: Usually, only Peg and Cleopatra act dramatic, but in "The Three Bears Problem", Cat has an ambition to dance to the exclusion of other activities and behaves almost theatrically when talking about said ambition. In the same episode, the Three Bears accentuate every announcement of a problem with playing the theme on saxophones.

Clap Your Hands If You Believe: In one short, in order to restore Wise Wizard Ramone's sparkle, everyone who believed in wizards has to count up to twenty by twos. For those who don't believe in wizards, "There's a wizard right there. What more proof do you need?"

Pig sings instead of speaking and has an almost-obsessive love for triangles.

Big Mouth has a strange interest in everything yellow.

Cat is also pretty wacky, though not as much as the Pig or Big Mouth.

Comically Missing the Point: In "The Cleopatra Problem", Cleopatra and Peg say that the heavier pan in the scales logically has... to which Cat says, "A cold? Hiccups?", then when Peg says she's friends with the best cat in the world, Cat says, "Puss in Boots?".

Continuity Nod: In "The Allergy Problem", the lyrics to Peg's song "Getting stuck in trees, chasing after chicks, shaking it for the bees" are nods to the episodes "The Tree Problem", "Another Tree Problem", "The Chicken Problem", and "The Honey Problem".

Couch Gag: Every episode's intro includes something related to the first short's topic. This can be as simple as an item in the background of the scene and/or tweaks to Cat's dancing to Peg's singing, or as elaborate as Cat's Jimi Hendrix tribute leading into "The Groovy Sixties Problem".

A Dog Named "Dog": The main example of the trope is a cat named "Cat", who is in the title. There's also a pig called Pig, a little chicken named Littlest Chicken, a group of teens called The Teenagers (or, The Teens, for short) and many other examples.

"Do It Yourself" Theme Tune: Peg and Cat almost entirely sing the show theme tune, save that off-screen kids sing the parts with the numbers and also join for the final shouting of the title.

Edutainment Show: The show has some educational purposes, especially to do with math, but is also designed for entertainment.

The Eeyore: Richard, a little boy alien from the Purple Planet, is easily saddened when things go wrong, though he's quite amiable otherwise.

Einstein Hair: This show features the real Albert Einstein, who has frizzy hair.

Embarrassment Plot: In "The Roxanne Problem", the math nerd cat Roxanne is impressed by Cat because she thought she heard him counting by twos when it was actually Peg. Cat is embarrassed to admit to Roxanne that he doesn't really know math or sound like Peg.

Evil Laugh: Discussed during the end-tag of "The Straight and Narrow Problem" when Cat comments that "Villains have weird laughs" and Peg says, "I know, right?".

Flash Back: Peg has several memories of past events in "The Allergy Problem".

The Fool: Cat. Although he sometimes lands in trouble for his spacey behavior, he always gets out, and his random playing around is usually what inspires Peg's ultimate answer to the problem of the episode.

Freak Out: Peg, and occasionally other characters but never Cat, shout, "I am totally freaking out!" whenever they're very nervous, usually accompanied by flailing their arms and legs about.

Gentle Giants: The giant couple who offer to have lunch with practically everyone!

Getting Crap Past the Radar: The fact that the Teens use the OMG! expression as part of their radical speech in a series aimed at preschoolers is definitely this. The series' Facebook page has actually received some parental complaints about it.

Good Luck Charm: Peg always keeps a sparkly marble (among other things) in her hat and occasionally gives it a quick toss before solving a difficult problem.

The Klutz: Cat often indirectly helps Peg by tripping over objects. However, his blunders are not always beneficial to the situation.

Lampshade Hanging: Much of the show's charm comes from how it's just as likely to play with their own recurring tropes (such as Peg's Once per Episode freakouts) to various degrees as it is to play them straight.

Large Ham: Peg is just as boisterous as most young girls. She has at least one moment when she's "totally freaking out!" per short, whereupon Cat (or occasionally another character) reminds her to (usually) calm down by counting backwards from five. Cleopatra is just as dramatic as Peg.

The Pig's usually silent, but when he sings he bursts into a rich operatic tenor that wouldn't be out of place in an opera. He often plays villainous roles in the show's genre spoofs, such as supervillain Triangulo and tickling outlaw Bad Jack.

Limited Wardrobe: Characters with clothes will generally wear the same outfits unless the situation calls for something different.

Literal-Minded: In "The Giant Problem", Cat thinks the giants want to eat him and Peg because they talk about "having them for lunch", when they actually mean having them over for lunch.

Lucky Charms Title: Using a plus sign instead of the usual ampersand is justified, because the show is about mathematics.

Mad Libs Catch Phrase: After Cat does something that inspires Peg to find the solution (usually accidentally), she'll exclaim, "You did it, you (insert complimentary adjective) cat, you!" "Amazing" and "genius" are the most common choices.

"The Allergy Problem" has two sad songs: Cat's blues song about Peg possibly being allergic to him, and Peg's song about missing Cat.

Downplayed for Pig's song about being stuck in a tree in "I Do What I Can: the Musical". He has lyrics like "poor me" but doesn't seem all too sad.

The Mentor: Peg and Cat often turn to Ramone if they're stuck with an issue at hand. Interestingly, Ramone appears to be just a few years older than the protagonist rather than being an adult.

Messy Pig: Zigzagged in "The Butter Problem", where a pig is seen dirty but likes being washed.

Mistaken for Thief: In "The Cleopatra Problem", Peg's marble and Epidermis the camel are found missing. They think the Pig did it as he was nearby, but really Epidermis stole the marble and hid.

Mistakes Are Not the End of the World: In "The Allergy Problem", Peg is sneezing a lot and thinks she's allergic to Cat, then a bird accidentally takes Cat away and Peg thinks he ran away. She and Ramone set off in search of him and a whale accidentally swallows them and Cat. When they come back, Peg miscounts the items in her hat before finding out that she's actually allergic to clovers. Then, everybody sings a song about how making mistakes isn't all bad.

Nice Hat: Peg has a wool hat that she is rarely seen without. In "The Mega Mall Problem", she is (briefly) willing to let her neighbor dress her up in a pink dress with frills, pink shoes and pink bow, but insists that "The hat stays."

Nobody Poops: Averted in "The Potty Problem." Lampshaded in the Cold Open segment, where Peg asks if they can even say what is making that nasty smell.

No Name Given: Several characters are unnamed, including Peg's mother, the farmer, most of the 100 Chickens, the cow...

Non-Human Sidekick: Cat is always found with Peg but occasionally Richard the alien or the Pig tags along to help.

Non-Ironic Clown: Mac wants to be one of these in "The Clown Problem", and Peg + Cat help him by teaching the Rule of Three as it applies to comedy.

Non-Nude Bathing: The "Bathroom" segments showcase that Peg bathes in her swimsuit.

Ocular Gushers: Richard, who is prone to self-esteem issues, will sometimes cry these.

Once per Episode: When the really BIG problem of the moment starts to overwhelm Peg, she starts "totally freaking out!" It takes Cat holding up both hands toward her in a warding-off pose to get Peg to realize that she needs to snap out of it, most of the time this is done by counting backwards from five to calm down although there have been exceptions.

The "Problem Solved" song is typically sung twice in each short, once for the relatively small problem that comes up in the early going and a second time for the main problem.

One Steve Limit: Averted in that the Richard we know is one of several Richards in his family. Even his sister is named Richard.

O.O.C. Is Serious Business: When Cat goes all gloomy and quiet in "The Three Friends Problem", Peg and the Neighbor Ladies are very concerned (they even wonder if he's sick) and sing a whole song about how "something's up with Cat".

Plagiarism in Fiction: In "The Roxanne Problem", Pig claims he made the pyramid-shaped trash sculpture, but really Ramone did. This causes Roxanne to call him "Artist Pig" for the whole episode.

Plot Allergy: In "The Allergy Problem," Peg fears that she might be allergic to Cat, but turns out to actually be allergic to four-leaf clovers. They make her sneeze. This one can be chalked up as Artistic License  Biology, since four-leaf covers aren't chemically any different from regular clovers, they just have an extra leaf. If four-leaf clovers caused someone to sneeze, then surely regular ones would as well. Mrs. Giant also has allergies, as shown in "The Giant Problem".

Inverted in the superhero installments in which several of the times that Super Peg and Cat Guy encounter shape-based crime, such as stacking the 100 chicks in a pyramid, they point out that it really isn't that big a deal, though they still have to stop it.

In "The Mega Mall Problem", Peg seems overly unhappy at the prospect of never getting the opportunity to do a particular little dance.

In "The Big Gig Problem", Ramone demonstrates subtracting 1 from 11 (and that this is like counting backwards) on an amplifier that goes up to 11.

In "The Mega Mall Problem," when Peg complains about not being able to see to dance because she's wearing a zebra mask, Cat goes Yoda on her: "Your eyes can play tricks on you. Trust them, do not." (Though, technically, "Your eyes can deceive you. Don't trust them." was actually Ben Kenobi's line in the original film.)

"The Arch Villain Problem / The Straight and Narrow Problem" features a scene-changer that's a star (the one on Super Peg + Cat Guy's outfits) zooming forward against a spinning spiral, a la Batman. At the end of the second short, they tell us to watch them again, "Same Peg time, same Cat channel." A later Super Peg + Cat Guy short features the villainess Flatwoman, who's modeled on the show's take on Catwoman (which might be why Cat's attracted to her).

"The Friday the 13th Problem", an episode about the number 13, takes place at a campground, and the campground leader is about to tell them a scary story that took place on Friday the 13th. (He forgets at the last minute, though.) Additionally, during a music number, a character falls down, causing several objects to fly up into the air, including a familiar-looking hockey mask.

The original cover of Peg + Cat Really Big Album is clearly inspired by "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" from The Beatles. However, it seems that some lawyers may have gotten involved because at some point it was changed to a much more generic and plain◊ cover featuring only Peg and Cat against a dull two-color background. (Either that, or it was for uniformity, as other PBSKids digital album covers sport a similar look, such as this one.)

The titular Arch Villain in "The Arch Villain Problem", who's obsessed with arranging everything in arches. He reforms in "The Straight and Narrow Problem", but then he becomes obsessed with arranging everything...straight and narrow.

The Pig falls into this category from time to time, usually when triangles are involved. He even has a supervillain identity in the Super Peg + Cat Guy shorts: Triangulo, who once mentored Cat Guy but did a FaceHeel Turn.

Speech-Impaired Animal: Cleopatra's camel Epidermis sometimes talks, but in a funny voice and it degenerates into camel noises.

So everything waah!

Superstition Episode: Appropriately, "The Friday the 13th Problem", which is centered around the number 13 and takes place on Friday the 13th. During the events of the episode, Richard develops a fear the eponymous number and Peg and company attempt to get Richard to conquer his fear of the number. However, the number 13 proceeds to suddenly pop up seemingly everywhere in various forms, and everybody begins to worry that Richard's fears of the number are not unfounded, leading to them alltotally freaking out. Fortunately, they are all able to remind themselves that 13 is just a number, and the various ways that 13 was turning up everywhere had a natural explanation: One of the teens was excited about being 13 years old and got carried away.

Suspiciously Specific Denial: In "Another Tree Problem", the reason that Peg wants to borrow Ramone's giraffes is not because Cat is stuck in a tree again. No, absolutely not.

Talking Animal: Several otherwise-normal talking animals, including the whale from "The Allergy Problem".

Teens Love Shopping: Downplayed. Everybody likes going to the mall, but the teens, especially Mora and Tessa, seem to like it a bit more.

Tertiary Sexual Characteristics: Zigzagged. Mama Bear wears a dress and a flower while Papa Bear wears a tie, however, two of the Billy Goats Gruff wear tutus.

In "The Golden Pyramid Problem", the dragon threatens Peg + Cat with this, but is unable to because they're protected by a magic cylinder. Peg then uses this on him to get him to reveal what he did with the pyramids.

In the Wild West-set Bad Jack shorts, Bad Jack (aka The Pig) and his gang use this as their primary means of terrorizing the populace of the town. The first time out Peg and company fight tickling with tickling, but in "Bad Jack Is Back" she realizes that this will just create a vicious cycle and instead comes up with a way to get rid of both sides' weapons.

Toilet Humour: "The Potty Problem" includes jokes focusing on Big Mouth "going potty" on Viv's rug and being potty trained, Viv comments that Peg was a "very stinky toddler" before she was potty trained.

Tomboy: Peg doesn't like to wear dresses and is often willing to be part of the action or get dirty.

Toon Physics: Not normally, but occasionally Hammerspace will exist, and in "The Cleopatra Problem", the marble rolls uphill several times.

Totally Radical: The Teens, who often sprinkle their language with "totally" and other hip terms, though this is more Played for Laughs than a deliberate attempt at being hip. Peg also uses the word "totally" a lot, and she does sometimes use other hip terms although not as much as the teens.

Trying Not to Cry: Although he is prone to crying, Richard often remarks this when he's attempting to prevent waterworks caused by problems.

20% More Awesome: Averted in "The Three Friends Problem" when Cat draws a graph indicating that Peg used to like him to infinity and now she only likes him to "about this much" (very low point on the graph) but likes Big Dog instead to infinity. Peg tells him that while there are lots of things that can be compared on a graph, her feelings for him can't be compared to her feelings for Big Dog or anyone else and that he'll always be totally special to her. Later, they both sing about it.

Undying Loyalty: Peg is so loyal to Cat that she wanted to keep him even when she thought she was allergic to him. She's also shown to be loyal to her other friends.

With Catlike Tread: In "The Big Dog Problem," where Peg and Cat sing about sneaking past Big Dog while attempting to do so.

Wutai: The Japanese countryside is one of the many settings, and home of Aki, the ninja-in-training. It's Deliberately Monochrome except for splashes of pink for the cherry blossom petals, and looks more like a painting than other locales.

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